UP, Kerala complete wins on third day

Two teams completed wins and at least three other teams went to stumps with their sights on victory at the end of play on the third day of the sixth round of Ranji Trophy 2013-14 matches on Sunday (December 8).

But the man providing the talking point was Murali Kartik, the Railways spinner, who Mankaded Bengal’s Sandipan Das in their Group B game at the Jamia Milia ground in New Delhi.

Das’s dismissal triggered a mini collapse as Bengal finished the day on 252 for 7, still 55 runs away from taking the first-innings lead against Railways. Bengal, resuming at 65 for 1 in response to Railways’ 306, stuttered as Anureet Singh, the medium pacer, scalped four wickets to take his season tally to 22. Laxmi Ratan Shukla, unbeaten on 87, had added 54 runs for the eighth wicket with Iresh Saxena and will hold the key to Bengal’s chances on Monday.

In the other big development, Jharkhand strengthened their hold over Mumbai at the Wankhede Stadium in a Group A game. Varun Aaron and Shahbaz Nadeem picked up seven wickets between them as the last five Mumbai batsmen could add just 55 runs to their overnight score of 210 for 5 in reply to Jharkhand’s 351. After that, Ishank Jaggi scored an unbeaten 51 as Jharkhand ended the day with an overall lead of 262 runs with five wickets still intact.

Down south in Kannur, Kerala took just 6.2 overs to pick up the last three Himachal Pradesh wickets and register a 61-run win in their Group C game. Himachal Pradesh started the day needing 86 runs to win but Rishi Dhawan fell to Padmanabhan Prasanth, the left-arm spinner who had taken seven wickets in the first innings, off the fourth ball of the day and that ended their hopes. Vinoop Manoharan finished with figures of 5 for 43. The win pushed Kerala to the second spot – joint with Jammu and Kashmir – behind Himachal Pradesh on the Group C table.

For J&K, against Maharashtra, Obaid Haroon and Bandeep Singh, the overnight pair, brought up their best first-class scores of 94 and 79 respectively before both fell to Bharat Solanki, the legspinner. Samad Fallah then picked up two wickets as J&K finished the day at 333 for 6 in their second innings, only 17 runs ahead of Maharashtra with just four wickets in hand.

In Ghaziabad, Imtiaz Ahmed, RP Singh, Amit Mishra and Piyush Chawla all picked up wickets as Services were bowled out for 191 to hand Uttar Pradesh a victory by an innings and 14 runs. The bonus point they earned with the win took Uttar Pradesh to the top of the Group B table.

Not far away in Lahli, Ronit More’s first five-wicket haul in first-class cricket overshadowed Harshal Patel’s terrific show with the ball as Karnataka ended the day 35 runs away from registering their second win in as many games in Group A. Haryana were bowled out for 105 in their second innings and then, set a target of 97 to win, Karnataka lost four wickets for 62 runs, with Patel taking his match tally to eight wickets, before play ended for the day.

In Gwalior, Rajasthan found themselves 77 runs away from their first victory in 13 matches over two seasons against Madhya Pradesh in Group B. Naman Ojha brought up his third century of the season but that was not enough to save the game for Madhya Pradesh as Rituraj Singh finished with figures of 4 for 74. He was well supported by Pankaj Singh and Ramesh Powar, who picked up five wickets between them, to bowl Madhya Pradesh out for 314. Set a target of 148, Rajasthan lost two wickets in the first five overs to Ishwar Pandey before Vineet Saxena and Robin Bist steadied the ship with a partnership of 59 runs. Saxena was lbw off Devendra Bundela off the last ball of the day.

In Mohali, Sandeep Sharma registered his sixth five-wicket haul as Punjab bowled out Vidarbha for 360 in the eighth over of the morning in their Group A game before Jiwanjot Singh, the highest run-getter in the 2012-13 Ranji Trophy, played his first innings of substance this season. Punjab, who scored only 184 in their first innings, put up a much better batting performance to score 330 for 1 and take a lead of 154 runs. Jiwanjot was unbeaten on 188 and giving him company was Uday Kaul on 88.

In Sambalpur, Natraj Behera, dropped from the side this season and brought back only after the new opening combination did not work, showed his mettle with an innings of 158. That, however, was not enough as Odisha were bowled out for 379 in their first innings to give Delhi a 63-run first-innings lead. For Delhi, Parvinder Awana was the star with figures of 5 or 97. Delhi extended their lead to 112 as they went to stumps at 49 for the loss of Unmukt Chand and Gautam Gambhir. Virender Sehwag was unbeaten on 32.

Goa dominated the proceedings against Assam in their Group C encounter in Guwahati. All the batsmen made healthy contributions as they went past Assam’s first-innings total of 247 before declaring at 406 for 9. Then Amit Yadav, the offspinner, picked up three wickets to reduce Assam to 31 for 4, still 128 runs behind Goa.

In another Group C game in Hyderabad, Tripura declared at 650 for 8 and Hyderabad then made a strong reply as they finished the day at 258 for 1. Akshath Reddy, the Hyderabad captain, scored his first century of the season and put together an unbeaten second-wicket stand of 228 runs with Dwaraka Ravi Teja, who scored 90. Hyderabad need to score 333 more on the final day to take the first-innings lead.